Title: Dynamic Stylesheet
Last modified: August 18, 2016

---

# Dynamic Stylesheet

 *  [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * (@doodlebee)
 * [19 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-stylesheet/)
 * Hey all,
 * I was helping out someone with their WordPress site – she’s setting it up for
   a friend of hers. There was a need to have a different background to be set for
   every Page you come to on the site. Now, I know you can accomplish this by creating
   a page template or by using a conditional, but the problem is that the lady who
   the site is for isn’t very computer literate (and thus would have no clue how
   to create a new page template and/or add in the necessary stuff for conditionals).
 * Now, I know you can create a dynamic stylesheet (I’ve done it before), so the
   idea was to add a dynamic stylesheet to pull in the page slug of the current 
   page you’re one, and use that as the image that would be set for the background.
   The odd thing is that the stylesheet.php file seems to be stripping out the ability
   to read what Page you’re on. *Outside* of “stylesheet.php” if I use this code:
 *     ```
       $dpname = $post->post_name;
       echo $dpname;
       ```
   
 * The the slug of the Page you’re on will display. We were going to use this to
   set the background image:
 * `body { background-image:url("../images/<?php echp $dpname; ?>_bg.gif); }`
 * As I said, the above works fine in any other file in the system. However, when
   I put it in an actual stylesheet.pph file, the $dpname is ignored, and never 
   gets called in. I’m *suspecting* it’s because of this line in the stylesheet (
   which *must* appear at the top of the file for it to work as a stylesheet):
 * header(‘Content-Type=text/css’);
 * I don’t know enough about dynamic stylesheets to know if this truly is the cause.
   But I’m really suspecting that it is.
 * Does anyone know if this *is* what’s stripping the PHP from the file? And if 
   so, would anyone know what I need to do to keep it recognizable as a stylesheet,
   but still pull in the information that I need?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Thread Starter [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * (@doodlebee)
 * [19 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-stylesheet/#post-560540)
 * Got it!
 * I was an idiot. I forgot to call in the header for WordPress, so it would recognize
   the variables. The below code works like a charm!
 * filename: stylesheet.php (saved *within* the wp-content/themes/YOUR THEME NAME)
 * `<?php`
 *     ```
       require('../../../wp-blog-header.php');
       header('Content-type: text/css');
       ```
   
 *     ```
       global $post;
       $dpname = $post->post_name;
        ?>
       ```
   
 * `body { background-image:url("../images/<?php echo $dpname; ?>_bg.jpg"); }`
 * Hope it helps someone else!
 *  [kodiak3000](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kodiak3000/)
 * (@kodiak3000)
 * [19 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-stylesheet/#post-560628)
 * Hey doodlebee – I got this to work, but instead of calling a different image 
   for each page, it’s calling the same image.
 * There’s a default bg image set using the “normal” style.css. This stylesheet 
   should override that, and it does, but it keeps calling the same image rather
   than a different one for each page.
 * I’m the original “helpee” on this one. I’m posting here in case anyone else can
   help, cause doodlebee’s already gone well beyond the call of duty here.
 * Thanks!
 *  Thread Starter [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * (@doodlebee)
 * [18 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-stylesheet/#post-560638)
 * I know it’s been a while, but I swear I got this thing working – except the woman
   I was helping out still says it doesn’t function right. Here’s what I have come
   up with – and I swear it was working for me – but if anyone else may have some
   light to shed as to why it’s not working for her, that’d be great. (Or maybe 
   the “working for me” thing was a fluke…I haven’t tested it recently)
 * So the first step was this (and it relates to Kodiak’s error)…if you put in this
   piece of code, all on it’s own:
 *     ```
       <?php
       $dpname = $post->post_name;
       echo $dpname;
       ?>
       ```
   
 * Then the post name of the page you’re on (be it post or Page), the “$dpname” 
   will echo the slug of that post/Page. However, when I tried to place it in the
   stylesheet link:
 * `body {background-image:url("../images/<?php echo $dpname; ?>_bg.jpg");}`
 * …it would only echo a blank spot where the name should be. I *suspect* that it’s
   because the stylesheet call – to make it dynamic – uses this line:
 * `header('Content-type: text/css');`
 * …but I have no basis for that line of thought other then that I *think* that’s
   why it is.
 * Anyway, I did come up with a workaround – and this is what was working for me,
   but not for the lady I was helping.
 *     ```
       <?php
   
       function dynamic_stylesheet() {
   
       global $post;
       $dpname = $post->post_name;
   
       if (is_page() || is_single()) { ?>
   
       <style type="text/css">
       body { background-image:url("<?php bloginfo('template_directory') ?>/images/<?php echo $dpname ?>_bg.jpg"); }
       </style>
   
       <?php } }
   
       add_action('wp_head','dynamic_stylesheet');
   
       ?>
       ```
   
 * This code, if placed in the “functions.php” file and added to your theme, will
   do what it needs to do. At least for me. LOL ( just suddenly realized maybe she
   took the “wp_head” call out of her theme header – maybe that’s why it’s not working
   for her….hmmm…)
 * Anyway, if anyone else wants to test that out and see if there’s any weirdness
   with it, please let me know!
 *  [ProsperoDK](https://wordpress.org/support/users/prosperodk/)
 * (@prosperodk)
 * [18 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-stylesheet/#post-560679)
 * I’ve been helping my father getting his new website up and running. We are using
   WordPress more as a CMS instead of a blog with pages in a hierarchical structure.
 * He wanted to have a different header image for each page (so the image related
   to the text on the page.)
 * This wasn’t easy to accomplish until I found this thread.
 * So with a few minor alterations this worked for me.
 * I’m using the page-ID to name the header-image since that is easy for my father
   to find in the admin pages.
 * And I had to change
    `body { background-image:` to `#header { background:`
 * This is what I ended up that worked for me.
 *     ```
       <?php
   
       function dynamic_stylesheet() {
   
       global $post;
       $dpname = $post->ID;
   
       if (is_page() || is_single()) { ?>
   
       <style type="text/css">
       #header { background:url("<?php bloginfo('template_directory') ?>/images/banner/panorama.<?php echo $dpname ?>.jpg"); }
       </style>
   
       <?php } }
   
       add_action('wp_head','dynamic_stylesheet');
   
       ?>
       ```
   
 * If there’s no specific header image for that page it just uses the default header
   image.
 * So thank you doodlebee for your code 🙂 It worked like a charm.
 *  [Pete](https://wordpress.org/support/users/perthmetro/)
 * (@perthmetro)
 * [18 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-stylesheet/#post-560680)
 * can you explain exactly where i place this code?
 *  [Tom Penney](https://wordpress.org/support/users/blots/)
 * (@blots)
 * [18 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-stylesheet/#post-560684)
 * Haven’t read this whole post but I have also found the custom fields feature 
   useful for this kind of stuff. then you don’t have to use dynamic style sheet
   and the author can set styles in a custom field then those styles can be included
   in-line by your template. simple example would be a background color
 *     ```
       $bgstyle="";
       <?php
         // get the background color specified in the page meta data
           if (get_post_meta($post->ID, "color", true)) {
             $bgcolor= get_post_meta($post->ID, "color", true);
             $bgstyle=' style="background-color: ' . $bgcolor . ';"';
           }
       ?>
       <body <?php echo $bgstyle; ?> >
       ```
   
 * then the author , while creating a page, can add a custom field with key = “color”
   and value set to a valid css color like “blue” or “#0000ff” and that color will
   be set as body background
 * Same could be done with image background names or whatever. Id recommend adding
   a test to your code to ensure what is entered as a value is valid. the above 
   could mess up the html if the author entered something like “greenish brown”
 * I’ve also used this for adding text in the masthead and even defining special
   menus and such.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘Dynamic Stylesheet’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [Stylesheet](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/stylesheet/)
 * [variables](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/variables/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 6 replies
 * 5 participants
 * Last reply from: [Tom Penney](https://wordpress.org/support/users/blots/)
 * Last activity: [18 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-stylesheet/#post-560684)
 * Status: not a support question

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